If It Bleeds (2020) is a collection of four previously unpublished novellas by American writer Stephen King.

1. “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone”
2. “The Life of Chuck”
3. “If It Bleeds”
4. “Rat”

With Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, once again King proves he is the best of all the great story tellers.

Craig gets a job working for the retired Mr. Harrigan, who gifts Craig a winning lottery ticket.

Craig then buys Mr. Harrigan a cell phone using some of the money won from the lottery ticket.

Eventually, Mr. Harrigan dies and later, Craig leaves a voicemail on Mr. Harrigan’s old phone about a bully. The bully is later found to have died by suicide. …

I also enjoyed If It Bleeds,  a stand-alone sequel to the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, specifically The Outsider.

King is a terrific story teller. You quickly relate to his fictional characters.

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I read only the 1st book. Won’t continue.

But I’m thinking this series will appeal to many young readers.

Throne of Glass is a high fantasy novel series by American author Sarah J. Maas, beginning with the entry of the same name, released in August 2012.

The story follows the journey of Celaena Sardothien, a teenage assassin in a corrupt kingdom with a tyrannical ruler …

Celaena is given the chance to leave the slave pits, and become the king’s personal assassin. She’d have to survive a contest with the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. …

This is the first book in a long series.

Dean Koontz has some of the most imaginative plots.

His story telling is terrific too. The drama is easy to follow. Moves quickly.

The dialogue funny and interesting.

Life Expectancy is a novel by suspense/horror writer Dean R. Koontz.

The plot centers on five pivotal moments in the life of a self-proclaimed “lummox” named James “Jimmy” Tock. …

Moments before his grandfather’s death, the old man makes 10 cryptic predictions: among them that his grandchild will be named James—but that everyone will call him Jimmy.

Josef also predicts five terrible days to come in his grandson’s life.  And announces those dates.

As the prophecies are fulfilled one by one, and he survives each, Jimmy learns many things.

Read this book for:

• the humour
• Leo Johnson’s commentary on the book DRAFT chapters. He’s a beta reader.

The story is not easy to follow, IMHO.

Four strangers are sitting in the reading room of the Boston Public Library quietly working when a woman’s scream pierces the silence.

Later, a body is found, and the four characters quickly become friends as they work to piece together what happened.

That’s the premise of Sulari Gentill’s mystery, titled “The Woman In The Library.” 

The 4 seeming strangers are:

• Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Aussie writer
• “Freud Girl”
• “Heroic Chin”
• “Handsome Man” (Cain)

The author uses those nicknames when she doesn’t yet know who they are.

The whodunit is which is the murderer.

So far, so good.

The confusion for me is that this tale is being written by another Aussie author, Hannah Tigone — who’s getting emails from beta reader Leo Johnson, an American who knows Boston well. And American idioms.

Finally, the real author is Sulari Gentill, yet another Aussie author.

If my math is correct, there are 3 murder mystery authors. YOU sort them out. 😀

I’m not a huge fan of these books. I prefer the TV series, actually.

But if YOU like them — this is one of the best.

A World of Curiosities is the 18th novel in a series featuring the fictional character Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

The 2022 crime mystery follows the investigation of a series of murders in Quebec.

We learn that Gamache decided to go into Homicide after being one of the responding officers in the1989 École Polytechnique massacre. Fourteen women were murdered; another 10 women and 4 men injured. The killer was a 25-year-old white male who legally purchased a lightweight semi-automatic rifle, systematically planning to murder women at his former school.

Canadians mark the day of the killings with a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. 

Curiosities is a sequel to Penny’s 2021 book The Madness of Crowds.

… features siblings Sam and Fiona Arsenault, whose mother Clotilde was killed after subjecting them both to sexual abuse in their younger years. …

Wikipedia

Adler-Olsen is a Danish crime fiction writer best known for his Department Q series.

Purity of Vengeance is the 4th book in the series. (2018)

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark’s #1 crime writer. The films based on his books are popular.

The lead detective, Carl Mørck, is just a jerk. BUT less a jerk in this book. Perhaps he’s getting better.

I do like his sidekick, Assad.

In 1987, Nete Hermansen plans revenge on those who abused her in her youth, including Curt Wad, a charismatic surgeon who was part of a movement to sterilize wayward girls in 1950s Denmark.

More than twenty years later, Detective Carl Mørck already has plenty on his mind when he is presented with the (cold) case of a brothel owner, a woman named Rita, who went missing in the eighties …

But when Carl’s assistants, Assad and Rose, learn that numerous other people disappeared around the same weekend as Rita, Carl takes notice.

As they sift through the disappearances, they get closer and closer to Curt Wad …

jussiadlerolsen.com

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